County News

By Roger Baker
County Manager

1/26/2006 - It’s not often that the most significant action item of a meeting isn’t even on the agenda, but that’s what happened at Tuesday’s meeting of the Gilpin County Commissioners.

  The Commissioners authorized $5,000 to support a joint marketing plan being developed by Innovation Marketing at the request of the Central City and Black Hawk casinos. Of course, the casinos supply a major part of the County’s funding, so supporting their good financial health is understandable.

  But the real impetus for the County’s involvement has to do with some of the plan’s long-term objectives, which seek to increase the total number of visitors to the County both from within Colorado and from out of state.

  To do this, the strategic plan suggests focusing less on the attractions of the casinos themselves, and more on the other amenities the County as a whole has to offer.

  The plan proposes attracting visitors through what is called “heritage tourism,” which emphasizes the historical and cultural aspects of a community. It talks about promoting events and festivals, like the County Fair, Central City’s summer concerts or the Black Hawk bull-riding event. It even suggests developing a tourist railroad, as another attraction in this market. And those are things we can all get behind.

  Using tax dollars to fund tourism promotion is always a controversial issue. The Colorado Tourism Board has gone in and out of business repeatedly over the past few years, as funding was either made available, or cut back.

  In other states, though, the issue is a well-settled one; state dollars (and a lot of them) are employed to fund sophisticated ad campaigns, website development, and targeted mass mailings.

  The difference with this plan is that tax dollars wouldn’t be employed; the proposed method of funding the actual marketing is a device fee levied on the slot machines in the two towns’ casinos. As growth rates continue to slow, the casino executives are beginning to recognize that we do have more to offer than just gambling, and that it helps all of us to advertise those other attractions.

  Developing a thriving retail market, supporting and expanding the annual Opera festival, rehabilitating and renovating some of our vacant (and dilapidated) historic structures—these are all things that can happen if we all work together. They are goals we all share, and goals we can achieve. This plan seems like a good first step, and that’s why the Commissioners wanted to show their support with a contribution to help get things up and running.